This is true for two reasons: Moore has operated on the gritty, neglected East Side for nearly three decades as a publisher and then restaurateur; and Moore, 65, is facing the most formidable stumbling block of his career — and he's refusing to quit.

Last month, Frost National Bank posted the popular restaurant for foreclosure, a fate Moore is staving off by filing for personal bankruptcy.

“I'm operating like I'm going to be here for the next 20 years,” Moore said. “I think if it were to close, the city would lose more than I would lose.”

That might sound grandiose if not for the undeniable cachet of the restaurant, which opened in 2006.

After winning election in 2009, Julián Castro held his first lunch as mayor at Tommy Moore's. The message was clear: He wouldn't ignore the jobs-poor East Side.

Castro returned to the comfort-food cafe on South Hackberry Street a year later to announce a series of summits designed to spark economic development in the area.

Two years later, frustration lingers among locals who discern little progress, even as signs emerge that the area could yet transform.

A hot spot for politicos, Tommy Moore's has served as an emblem of what the historically depressed East Side could become.

So what does trouble there mean?

Moore admits the looming foreclosure is related to the decline of a printing company he founded in 1988 that published the San Antonio Informer, a community newspaper, for two decades.

Sales and advertising revenue started dropping in 2005, and Moore stopped publishing the newspaper and tried selling the property, also located on South Hackberry Street, in 2008.

He never found a buyer; Frost National Bank foreclosed on the property in February.

Moore concedes the printing company was a cash drain on the restaurant. But he says his woes are also intertwined with institutional neglect.

“The people who have the money don't want to fool with the East Side,” he said. “And the people who want to fool with the East Side don't have the money.”

He temporarily closed the restaurant a few weeks ago to expand to a larger location down the street.

“I'm highly sensitive to the fact that a lot of black businesses are closing,” Williams said. “I think that has a lot to do with the recession coupled with being undercapitalized, not having a lot of money when we go in.”

He questioned the lack of economic incentives for small businesses, a problem that District 2 Councilwoman Ivy Taylor broached with me this week.

“I think in general, not just on the East Side, the city probably needs to do a better job of figuring out how we can better support small businesses,” Taylor said, “because most of our incentive packages are designed around larger businesses.”

As the mayor and other leaders wind up their Decade of Downtown, they should remember that San Antonio's inner-city neighborhoods are inseparable from its inner city. The success or failure of places like Tommy Moore's could have a profound impact on the urban core.

Meanwhile, Moore is expanding his hours, serving dinner until 8 p.m., determined to emerge from debt.

You can find him at his restaurant now from morning to night, six days a week.